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Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, better known as PetroVietnam, announced on Wednesday that it planned to produce 8.37 million metric tons of crude oil in the second half of the year, local media reported.

The national oil giant was quoted as saying that it hoped to achieve the annual target set at 16.8 million tons for this year.

Its output hits 9.28 million tons in the first six months, up 9.5 percent from the same period last year.

In its latest announcement, PetroVietnam did not make any change to its original production plan, even though last month several government agencies mentioned possibility that Vietnam may have to boost its crude oil output this year to achieve the annual growth target of 6.2 percent.

The need to raise output was blamed on the fact that crude oil, which was the main drive of Vietnam's economy over the first half year, has seen prices falling.